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Bionic Retinas Give Patients Sight

Posted by chrisd on from the implants-don't-poop-as-much-as-seeing-eye-dogs dept.

The Noof writes " Yahoo News is running a story about patients who have been given partial sight thanks to implants of silicon-based bionic retinas. " The article notes that the implant is having a "rescue effect" on the other components of the retina, restoring cells around the implant and making them useful again." Amazing stuff.

4 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Limited Potential by Jon_Katz+(Paranoid+F · · Score: 5, Informative

    While this indeed is a great innovation, we must remember that this has only been tested by people affected by retinitis pigmentosa. Whether the optical implants can be used to restore sight for people from eye injuries or other diseases remains to be seen.

    A lowdown on retinitis pigmentosa can be found here.

  2. Only for those who lost their sight by Hitokage_Nishino · · Score: 4, Informative

    There is an extremely interesting article in a recent Discover magazine about a man who was blind from the age of 2-3 recieving sight back in one eye thanks to stem cell implants.

    While after the operation he physically had 20/20 vision, he actually saw more along the lines of 20/500. The problem wasn't his eye, but his brain. He just hadn't learned how to fully percieve eyesight. One interesting note is that he does not perceive optical illusions. Since he's well past that critical stage of mental development when one is supposed to get it hardwired, he'll have a rough time getting his eyesight anywhere near normal. In fact, several other people who were blind as small children and had similar operations say they would rather be blind now.

    At any rate, while this will certainly be a great help to those who lost their sight as adults... it may not be of too much help to those born blind.

  3. More technical details by martyb · · Score: 4, Informative

    There's much more detail on the history, design, and development of the device in this EE times article. I was especially struck by how they persevered. They started on this in 1990 and things did not go entirely smoothly:

    "There were 50 to 75 major hurdles from the time we started," Vincent Chow said. "The biocompatibility side represented probably 40 percent of the issues. The other 60 percent were really in the electrical performance of our structures. That's because the final stimulation is an ionic stimulation. We're basically trying to interface a solar structure so that the microcurrents produced by the solar cell have a very high efficiency or functionality factor to stimulate the cells that are touching these particular areas."

    This version of the device contains about 3500 light detecting cells. If this version works out okay, they are planning to develop a much larger version of the chip.

    If the ASR chip is successful in restoring some degree of vision, Optobionics will make modifications to a final and significantly larger chip design. Some possible ideas, said Alan Chow, include placing openings in the chip to allow nourishment to flow between the outer and inner retina; and changing the direction of the electrical stimulation on an ongoing basis, a technique referred to as biphasic stimulation.

  4. Re:question by BWJones · · Score: 3, Informative

    As a retinal scientist who knows more than a bit about the problem, I am saying 30 years.

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.